If you or I were to be given the news that we were going blind, it is hard to say what would be the source of the most pain. Would it be the loss of independence? The inability to read? To work?
For Leah Frank, however, the answer was exceptional.
When Rebbetzin Frank lost her husband nearly twenty years ago, her youngest child was only a year old. In the years that followed, she raised and supported 13 children alone. One by one she married them off, without a spouse to lean on for help. How did she do it? She credits her success to davening. After her husband’s passing, she began to daven more than ever before. With tears in her eyes and a sefer tehillim in her hands, she asked Hashem for His help in all things, and through this, she was able to do the impossible.
Now 60 years old, Rebbetzin Frank works as a supervisor in multiple kindergartens. What should be a more calm and peaceful phase of her life, however, has been overcome by tragedy: She is losing her sight. Gradually, she has lost the ability to read, and consequently to work. The situation’s severity became more real than ever recently when she fell down a flight of stairs. She had not seen where she was going.
The most painful part of going blind, says Rebbetzin Frank, is her inability to read her siddur.
This encapsulates just a spark of how incredibly special, selfless, and spiritually connected this woman is. Doctors say that a simple surgery could return her eyesight, and her life. Unfortunately, it is not covered by the insurance. A life without the surgery, however, is grim. With no income and no independence, she would sink into severe poverty. Donations are being collected with the hope of returning Leah’s sight. For twenty years, she has dedicated her life to helping others. Now, she turns with sightless eyes to the Jewish people to help her in return.
